


Wizard or Warrior

by Mar_isu



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Humor, War of the Ring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 06:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3758209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mar_isu/pseuds/Mar_isu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frodo learns something interesting about Sam.  Birthday gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wizard or Warrior

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

"Sam, what did you pack?" Frodo asked, digging behind the spare cooking gear into the bottom of the sack for the requested seasonings to go with Strider's deer.  "If I didn't know better, I'd say you'd packed Bag End in here."

"Well, I would have, Mr. Frodo," Sam replied from next to the fire where he was busy helping the Ranger clean his kill, "but Miss Lobelia glared fit to roast me when I mentioned it."

Frodo smiled at the uncommon humor from the sturdy gardener and would have laughed, but the presence of the strange man who had joined them only four days ago made him hold the laughter back.  Pippin, having no such inhibitions, giggled from his seat nearby.  "It's naught that he didn't carry to Crickhollow, Frodo," the youngest hobbit said between laughs, "and he's added since then."

"Now see here," Sam objected, wandering over to the nearest pool to clean the deer blood off his hands.  "There's none as say I can't carry a little extra if I choose."

"Indeed," Strider agreed, washing up with Sam.  "I find that sometimes, it's what you didn't think you'd need that is necessary."

Frodo, half buried in Sam's pack nodded in agreement.  The Ranger made a point.  Suddenly, his hand bumped something unusual in the very bottom of the pack.  It couldn't be . . . was it . . . a book?  Grabbing all the spices he had found and the book the Ringbearer backed out of the cavern Sam had been carrying.

"Sam, what is this?" he asked staring at the battered sheaf of parchment crudely bound together in his hand.

Hastily drying his hands, Sam scrambled to snatch the manuscript from his master's grasp and stuff it back into the pack before anyone else saw it.  "It's nothing," the gardener mumbled.  "I thought . . . . Well, if we were to see elves, maybe I could . . ." The plain hobbit shook his head.  "It's a bit of foolishness, is all, Mr. Frodo.  Nothing more."

Frodo didn't argue, respecting Sam's reticence.  Yet even as he helped to roast supper, he couldn't help but ponder what he'd read on the cover of the much-used book Sam had brought along.

There, in an uncertain, but readable, hand was set:

_Troll, and Other Poems_  
_by Samwise Gamgee._   


The End, or not.

_"It's out of his own head, of course," said Frodo.  "I am learning a lot about Sam Gamgee on this journey.  First he was a conspirator, now he's a jester.  He'll end up by becoming a wizard or a warrior!"  
_

_\- FOTR,_ Flight to the Ford, just after Sam's poem "Troll."

**AN:** Title obviously from quote.


End file.
